Deftin'd the next his journey to purfue, Where wounding thorns and curfed thiftlés grew. 365 Ere yet he earns his bread, a-down his brow, Inclin'd to earth, his labouring fweat must flow; His limbs muft ake, with daily toils opprefs'd, Ere long-with'd night brings necessary rest. Still viewing with regret his darling Eve, He for her follies and his own must grieve; Bewailing still afresh their hapless choice; His ear oft' frighted with the imag'd voice
Of Heaven, when firft it thunder'd; oft' his view
Aghaft, as when the infant lightning flew,
And the ftern Cherub ftopp'd the fatal road, Arm'd with the flames of an avenging God. His younger fon on the polluted ground, First-fruit of death, lies plaintive of a wound Given by a brother's hand: his eldest birth
Flies, mark'd by Heaven, a fugitive o'er earth. Yet why thefe forrows heap'd upon the Sire,
Becomes nor Man, nor Angel, to enquire.
Each age finn'd on; and Guilt advanc'd with Time: The fon ftill added to the father's crime;
Till God arofe, and, great in anger, faid,
Lo! it repenteth me, that Man was made! Withdraw thy light, thou Sun! be dark, ye Skies! And from your deep abyfs, ye Waters, rife!
The frighted Angels heard th' Almighty Lord; And o'er the earth from wrathful viols pour'd Tempefts and ftorms, obedient to his word.
Mean time, his Providence to Noah gave The guard of all that he defign'd to fave. Exempt from general doom the Patriarch ftood; Contemn'd the waves, and triumph'd o'er the flood. The winds fall filent, and the waves decrease; The Dove brings quiet, and the Olive peace: Yet ftill his heart does inward forrow feel, Which Faith alone forbids him to reveal. If on the backward world his views are caft; 'Tis Death diffus'd, and universal wafte. Prefent (fad profpect!) can he aught defcry, But (what affects his melancholy eye),
The beauties of the antient fabric loft,
In chains of craggy hill, or lengths of dreary coaft? While, to high Heaven his pious breathings turn'd, Weeping he hop'd, and facrificing mourn'd; When of God's image only eight he found
Snatch'd from the watery grave, and fav'd from nation; drown'd;
And of three fons, the future hopes of Earth, The feed whence empires must receive their birth, One he forefees excluded heavenly grace, And mark'd with curfes, fatal to his race!
Abraham, potent prince, the friend of God, Of human ills muft bear the deftin'd load; By blood and battles muft his power maintain, And flay the monarchs ere he rules the plain; Muft deal juft portions of a fervile life To a proud handmaid and a peevish wife;
Muft with the mother leave the weeping fon, In want to wander, and in wilds to groan; Muft take his other child, his age's hope, To trembling Moriam's melancholy top, Order'd to drench his knife in filial blood, Deftroy his heir, or disobey his God.
Mofes beheld that God; but how beheld? The Deity in radiant beams conceal'd, And clouded in a deep abyfs of light; While prefent, too fevere for human fight, Nor ftaying longer than one swift-wing'd night. The following days, and months, and years, decreed To fierce encounter, and to toilfome deed.
His youth with wants and hardships must engage; Plots and rebellions muft difturb his age:
Some Corah ftill arofe, fome rebel slave, Prompter to fink the ftate, than he to fave: And Ifrael did his rage fo far provoke,
That what the Godhead wrote, the Prophet broke. His voice fcarce heard, his dictate scarce believ'd. 435 In camps, in arms, in pilgrimage, he liv'd;
And dy'd obedient to fevereft law,
Forbid to tread the promis'd land he saw.
My Father's life was one long line of care, A fcene of danger, and a state of war. Alarm'd, expos'd, his childhood must engage The Bear's rough gripe, and foaming Lion's rage. By various turns his threaten'd youth must fear Goliah's lifted fword, and Saul's emitted fpear.
Forlorn he must and perfecuted fly,
Climb the steep mountain, in the cavern lie; And often afk, and be refus'd, to die.
For ever, from his manly toil, are known The weight of power, and anguish of a crown. What tongue can speak the restless Monarch's woes; When God and Nathan were declar'd his foes? When every object his offence revil'd,
The husband murder'd, and the wife defil'd,
The parent's fins imprefs'd upon the dying child? What heart can think the grief which he suftain'd 455 When the King's crime brought vengeance on the land; And the inexorable Prophet's voice
Gave famine, plague, or war; and bid him fix his choice?
He dy'd; and, oh! may no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead! Yet the unwilling truth must be express'd, Which long has labour'd in this pensive breast : Dying, he added to my weight of care; He made me to his crimes undoubted heir; Left his unfinifh'd murder to his fon,
And Joab's blood entail'd on Judah's crown. Young as I was, I hafted to fulfil
The cruel dictates of my parent's will. Of his fair deeds a diftant view I took; But turn'd the tube, upon his faults to look ; Forgot his youth, fpent in his country's cause, His care of right, his reverence to the laws :
But could with joy his years of folly trace,
Broken and old in Bathfheba's embrace; Could follow him, where-e'er he stray'd from good, And cite his fad example; whilft I trod
Paths open to deceit, and track'd with blood.
Soon docile to the fecret acts of ill,
With fmiles I could betray, with temper kill; Soon in a brother could a rival view, Watch all his acts, and all his ways pursue.
In vain for life he to the altar fled :
Ambition and revenge have certain speed.
Ev'n there, my foul, ev'n there he should have fell;
But that my intereft did my rage conceal.
Doubling my crime, I promife, and deceive;
Purpose to flay, whilft fwearing to forgive. Treaties, perfuafions, fighs, and tears, are vain : With a mean lye curs'd vengeance I sustain ; Join fraud to force, and policy to power; Till, of the deftin'd fugitive fecure, In folemn state to parricide I rife ;
And, as God lives, this day my Brother dies. Be witness to my tears, celeftial Muse! In vain I would forget, in vain excufe, Fraternal blood by my direction fpilt; In vain on Joab's head transfer the guilt : The deed was acted by the fubject's hand; The fword was pointed by the King's command. Mine was the murder; it was mine alone : Years of contrition must the crime atone;
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